According to daily newspaper Dnevnik, police arrested Ivan Radan, who used to work as a doctor at the UKC Ljubljana neurology ward, on Monday. According to unofficial reports, he has been charged with 20 criminal counts, including seven murders. Radan is alleged to have arbitrarily cut short the lives of several patients by administering a lethal dose of medication to them. Police have also found several photographs of his patients on his computer.

UKC Ljubljana medical director Sergej Hojker had this to say at a press conference: “I’m glad the issue is being resolved so quickly. The police also acted fast, and I hope they can help bring a successful end to this situation. As soon as we found out about the problems – whose consequences can be dire – we immediately suspended and sacked Radan.” The head of the ward and several nurses also appear to be complicit in this tragedy. Hojker said that the hospital doesn’t know how many doctors had known about Radan’s actions, but he stressed that they told police everything they know.

“We have put in place preventive measures at the neurology ward. We can’t say it’s over yet, because we are still conducting an analysis of the situation,” head of the neurology ward David Vodušek said about the measures the hospital has taken to prevent such an incident from happening again. Vodušek said that no-one had complained about Radan’s work so far – quite the contrary. He added that he had only found out that Radan had pictures of the victims on his computer after detectives told him.

Hojker: Patients are safe at UKC
Hojker stressed that the entire UKC hospital had been investigated, i.e. all wards and not just the ward where Radan worked. Hojker added that patients at the hospital are safe and stressed that it never occurred to them to try to sweep the issue under the rug. Instead, they immediately contacted police and the public. “Hindsight is always 20/20. Radan was not a hated person. It’s difficult to talk about narcotics off the top of your head, it’s hard to simply accuse him of something. After the investigation, the supervisors said that everything was all right,” Hojker said about Radan’s alleged addiction.

B. V., G. K.
translated by D. V.